Fortunately, the University of New Mexico Press has reprinted Spanish Government in New Mexico, making it once again available to scholars and the general public—this time in a convenient paperback edition. Since its publication in 1968, this work has stood as a reliable account of Spanish administration from 1763 to 1821 and as a valuable reference for those interested in the Spanish Borderlands, largely because of the author’s meticulous research in archival sources, careful organization, accuracy, and clear narrative. While others subsequently have addressed Spanish government in Texas, New Mexico, and California, as well as changes in administration, Simmons’s study has remained important for both New Mexico and the entire northern frontier of New Spain.
The text and appendages are virtually unchanged from the original, but Simmons has added a new preface and two maps to this edition and has corrected typographical errors (although still misspelling Myra Ellen Jenkins). His purpose is to describe the governmental system in New Mexico during the last sixty years of Spanish rule and its relationship to administrative changes on the northern frontier. He succeeds admirably in a well-organized work of three parts: the first describes Spanish regional changes (e. g, Comandancia General de las Provincias Internas and the intendant system); the second examines provincial government in New Mexico; and the third explains local and municipal administration there. The author’s observation that “investigators have often neglected the seemingly prosaic, though nonetheless fundamental, aspects of the colonial story” (xiii) is still valid, as historians of the United States and the public have paid little heed to Simmons’s pioneering study and those of others since.
This new edition preserves all the attributes of the original and provides timely recognition of the anniversaries of Coronado’s expedition and Columbus’s discoveries. For those who have read the original, I suggest a rereading; for those who have not, careful examination of and continued reference to this reprint are highly recommended.
